A Spectre Is Haunting the World

It happened many times in history. When the rulers felt themselves confident about their power and order, they tended to fall in the illusion that their power and order would last forever and regarded all kinds of anti-system critical approaches with contempt. Other modes of production aside, there are countless examples in capitalism that confirm this. A striking example in this respect is the period beginning with 1980 and, especially, the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the main features of this period is that the bourgeois ideology attributed eternal superiority to the capitalist market economy and generated a feeling of sympathy for and trust in the capitalism among society.

During the above-mentioned period, many ideologies, which aimed for maximizing the interests of big capitalists, were invented and circulated. While Fukuyama and the like were touting “the end of history”, they were instilling to the society the idea that capitalism had entered a bright period of prospering, and was promising a great future: It was as if the collapse of the Soviet Union and similar regimes granted capitalism a kind of immortality elixir, eternally saving it from its systemic diseases, crises and recessions. Despite the discrepancy between these tales and the reality, this was the ideological atmosphere that the bourgeois forces of the time were trying to establish. American imperialism, writhing in economic stagnation, bankruptcy and collapse at present, was viewing itself, in those years, through a massive development period’s magnifying mirror, and was boastful.

In the 1980s and after, capitalist system was notorious for its neo-liberal policies, which was characterized by attacking acquired social rights of workers and every little sign of solidarity and collectivism. The “religion” of the capitalist system expressed itself as worshiping a world of consumption, market and stock market, which was over-inflated by speculations while circulating capital at an enormous speed. The credit mechanism turned out to be regarded as a god who created out of nothing, so that, not only the upper classes but also the people from lower classes could consume recklessly.

Neo-liberalism strived to drive the moral values that make human beings humans completely out of social life. With the aid of the devil called money, it also strived to trample under feet the values such as sharing, solidarity, mercy, compassion and justice. All classes should grovel to the stock market’s might; the poor people’s brains should be narcotized with the dreams of being rich by risking their scarce savings in stock market; and everything, even including the political strives between upper-class factions, should be oriented to the benefit and well-being of the stock market. Having grasped the opportunity in the “new period”, the bourgeoisie, with its unlimited greed for profit, carried out an unrelenting crusade against Marxism and its revolutionary world view. For this reason, a false belief had formed in society as if Marxism and revolution would not be able to revive any more.

In contrast to the apparently stable flow of life on the basis of this artificial realm under the domination of bourgeois ideology; in the actual life, the gap between the perceptions imposed on society and the reality was gradually growing. After a long suppression and fermentation phase, this “artificial” period matured and ended with a huge crisis breaking out, which manifested itself with serious explosions and jolts. No matter what they say, the view of the working class struggle is changing positively, today, and the capitalists’ confidence in the future of their system is shaken.

Now, as the news about the global crisis of capitalism surrounds the world, the minds of the bourgeois are haunted by the image of Marx, who scientifically attested, more than a century ago, that the capitalist system is destined to die. Today, there is a spectre over the world that horrifies the bourgeoisie. Happily, history will not belie our ideas and writings we defend as revolutionary Marxists. Marxism will begin to shine and gain its real strength in the hands of the world working class, whose existence is denied by the bourgeois ideology. In this the bourgeois ideology enjoyed the help of denialist and renegade elements who turned to subscribe to it.

“Bitter” collapse of “sweet” rise

Once, the great crisis of 1929 ended the period of worshipping capitalism. This adoration for the system had been established mainly on the basis of the rise of American imperialism after World War I. Also, today’s crisis of the system is proceeding like a similar “terminator”. Definitely, there are some differences between the two historical periods. But meanwhile, similar to the prior one, this last period of great crisis of capitalism bears cheerful dimensions: Both periods invite revolution, and slap the rightfulness of Marxism in the face of the world bourgeoisie.

We can briefly mention here the differences between the period of 1929 crisis and the current crisis of capitalism. Most prominent among them is the existence or absence of the Soviet Union and similar regimes. Despite those regimes were not socialist in reality, they formed a kind of left alternative to the capitalist order. The Soviet Union and its subsequent copies, which were present during the crisis of 1929, no longer exist today. In addition, revolutionary organizations embracing the working class and the toilers are rather scattered and weakened, today, compared to the past. The revolutionary consciousness that should have taken root in the bosom of the proletariat is extremely weak, the level of struggle is low, and generally, society has not yet begun to seek after the idea of revolutionary change of the order at a desired level.

Despite this situation, just like in the past, inherent laws of the workings of the capitalist economy are still enforcing its rules, resembling a revolutionary mole that is undermining this system. The current system crisis reveals once again, in a very striking way, that capitalism cannot and will not be able to escape from its “built-in” laws of operation. Especially through the events in the world since the 1990s, it has been evident that the monopolistic and imperialist stage of capitalism has not mitigated the crises; on the contrary, it has aggravated them.

It is inevitable that the “sweet” periods of rise in the capitalist economy, in which the unfettered greed for profit, overproduction, speculations and stock market manipulations prevail, are followed by “painful” periods of crisis. Thus, consumption frenzy and admiration of capitalism, with which society is intoxicated during the periods of “sweet” growth, collapses; and leaves its place to an intense spiral of unemployment, hunger, disappointment and depression. Businesses of all kinds, banks, credit institutions go bankrupt under the huge burden of unpaid debts. Unemployment grows like an avalanche and turns into a dangerous social disease that threatens the order.

Unemployment that emerged as a result of the crisis of 1929 reached such a dreadful magnitude that, for example, one in three employable people in the USA were unemployed in 1933. Meanwhile, businesses of various sizes closed, 5 thousand banks went bankrupt, and capacity utilization in the industry decreased to 20-30 percent. The masses that had been pushed into believing in the magic of the market economy now were suffering from hunger in soup lines at newly opened soup kitchens or begging on the streets. The present crisis will not cause any different misery scenes. Likewise, even the official sources, such as the ILO, announced that in 2008, 5 million people more would join to the world’s army of the unemployed, due to the global recession. Moreover, such figures are from the early 2008 and it is already clear that the true figures will far exceed these predictions.

It is clear that in this period of serious crisis, the ruling forces of the capitalist system will resort to all methods they can afford. All kinds of repression and tyranny will be on the table for the sake of perpetuating the order. It is the duty of communists to ensure the masses are vigilant and organized in the face of these threats. It should not be forgotten that, when capitalism is left on its own, finance-capital puts all the burden of the crisis on the back of the working masses. In the economic life, capitalist states give the strongest ones the opportunity to crush and swallow the weaker. In this way, the conditions for capitalism to continue its path are established. In past examples, this meant sheer exploitation and tyranny over poor masses; bloody imperialist wars that forced people to slaughter each other, increasing oppression, reactionary transformation of the political environment, and fascism. Today also, it is certain that the rulers of the order will not behave differently unless the struggle of the working class squeezes capitalism to the corner. There can be no more dangerous illusion than hoping that the crises of the system will tame the bourgeoisie spontaneously, or cause it to feel pity and soften.

The present crisis is not an ordinary periodic crisis, and its devastating consequences have not been fully experienced yet. But the aspect which is already very clear is the collapse of optimistic capitalist dream in the USA, the leading country of the system. This dream was a produce of economic vitality period. Under those circumstances, it is also clear that no matter which party or person sits in the seats of power in American political life, they cannot have any other primary duty than carrying out the sinister plans of big capital. Some spread the idea that, with the new president of the USA, Obama, a period of peace and well-being is opening and positive conditions will arise for the toilers and poor people of the world. In this respect, those propagandists are either betraying or inadvertently doing a great harm to the oppressed.

In order to control the devastating consequences of the crisis to some extent, American imperialism will, of course, continue to spread the idea that Obama has commenced a new period that deserve to be optimistic about. In the meantime, some of the new maneuvers of the USA in the imperialist war field - for instance, after leaving some military forces enough to control Iraq, transferring rest of it forces to new territories- may be mistakenly or wishfully interpreted as if it has abandoned aggressive Bush policies in the Middle East. However, all these cannot change the fact that the crisis of capitalist system will produce totally aggressive and reactionary policies. Since the ruling powers does not resort to reactionary wars and extraordinary forms of government, like fascism, due to individual characteristics of the rulers or to amuse themselves. Regardless of the initial personal intentions of those sitting in bourgeois government seats, there are strong driving forces that compel them to pursue policies in line with the material interests of finance-capital.

Attention to the crisis on the top

The periods of great crisis of capitalism not only create huge shocks in the economic life, but also produce plenty of instability in political life. Confirming this rule, current crisis finds its reflections in the political scenes of various countries. The feeling of restlessness and insecurity caused by the crisis affects many classes and strata, from the poor at the bottom to those who stand in the middle and the upper ones. While the world of bosses thinks about thousands of ways of putting the burden of the crisis on the back of the working masses and tries to put its plans into practice, a wave of rebellion of the poor masses, in response, is emerging in some countries. As a result, those who are already sitting in the seats of political power in almost all capitalist countries are being worn out, and in general, the masses have less confidence that they can overcome the devastating crisis with current governments. Nurtured by this atmosphere, a sense of political discontent develops and spreads not only among the oppressed and exploited masses, but also within the bourgeois class itself.

In fact, all the periods of great crisis of capitalism not only shake the world of the lower classes with the problems they bring, like unemployment, recession, instability in domestic and foreign politics etc., they also create deep shock waves in the world of the upper classes. Since, the serious periods of crisis of capitalism are often pregnant with revolutionary situations, for this reason. As will be remembered, one of the conditions necessary to speak of the revolutionary situation is the state of crisis that has spread to the top of the order. Indeed, a revolutionary situation is mainly manifested by a political crisis surrounding the top.

As Lenin has made clear, it is not enough for a revolution to happen when the lower classes do not want to live as before. The upper classes must also be unable to keep living in the old fashion. A revolutionary situation can develop when a serious crisis occurs among the upper classes. A revolutionary situation may develop in case the current crisis creates a crack in the policy of the ruling classes, which will cause discontent and unrest on the part of the oppressed classes.

While the bourgeoisie restore confidence in its order during the periods when the economy works fine, as the great crisis knocks the door, it cannot help but reveal to society that its confidence in its order gets weaker. The shock waves of the great crisis change social psychology; revive the idea of revolution, of which once bourgeoisie believed to have got rid of by declaring it dead. This revival holds for revolutionary leaders as well. And, of course, it again puts fear of great revolution in the heart of the bourgeoisie. These are not fairy tales that we revolutionaries tell to console ourselves. These are the facts of the present world that even bourgeois ideologues, themselves, had to admit.

The periods of deep crisis of capitalism are historical periods that the leading forces of the working class can heighten revolutionary struggle. Revolutionary leaders such as Marx, Engels and Lenin did not only diagnose the sinking economy in the crisis, they discerned the signs of revolution through the dust clouds of the serious convulsions of the order. And they gave top priority to the struggle for revolution. In this respect, the periods of shocking crises of capitalism involves revitalizing aspects for revolutionary leaders of Marxism. For example, while they expected a revolutionary surge as a result of the crisis that erupted in the 1850s, Marx wrote Engels: “Although I am in serious financial difficulties, myself, I have never been as cheerful as this crisis since 1849”. And Engels replied “The bourgeois mud of the past few years had stuck to me to a certain extent after all, but now it will be washed off and I shall feel a new man. The crisis will do my health as much good as a seaside holiday.”

As we have discussed in detail in our study that we analyzed the relationship between the crises of capitalism and revolutionary situations (see Elif Çağlı, Crises of Capitalism and Revolutionary Situations), intense poverty of the working masses often creates revolutionary opportunities. In case there are minimum conditions to enable an increase in the class movement, the crisis may pull the masses of the working class into a widespread and increasingly militant economic struggle. Lenin places special emphasis on the times when poverty and the economic struggle have greatly increased among the proletariat. It should not be forgotten that all the major uprisings in the revolutionary movement started on the basis of the economic mass movement.

While identifying that the periods of great crisis of capitalism are, in general pregnant with revolutionary situations, one should not overlook an extremely important reality: Capitalism will neither collapse spontaneously as a result of its economic crises, nor will the periods of crisis mature in a revolutionary direction on its own. If the struggle of the revolutionary vanguard can render the working class advantageous in terms of the level of consciousness and organization, a period of serious crisis can develop in line with the maturation of a revolutionary situation. Otherwise, convulsive periods caused by crises can also result in mass support for fascist-type oppressive bourgeois regimes. In short, taking advantage of the revolutionary opportunities, that are created by the crisis, depends on whether there is a revolutionary leadership and whether large working masses of society are mobilized around the revolutionary organization of the working class, or not.

Periods of great crises, also serve as a stimulus that reminds the basic classes of capitalism and their political representatives their fundamental duties. Crises make hard facts more comprehensible for the vanguard forces of the working class, in line with eliminating conciliatory, procrastinating and reformist influences. Those periods, on the other hand, slap the basic facts about the system in the face of the bourgeois forces. It is so clear this rule is still strikingly in effect today that, the crisis inevitably brings a nightmare to the mind of the bourgeoisie: The ultimate end awaiting capitalism. Nowadays, the bourgeois world remembers the name of Marx frequently, the deadly illnesses of capitalism remind bourgeois ideologists and economists the ingenious diagnoses of Marx again and again.

Has the Marx virus infected the system?

Having virtually lost their class common sense with the shock of the great crisis that erupted today, the bourgeois ideologists, nowadays, have begun to speak with references to Marx as if they confessed the facts for a moment. Questions like “Is Marx right?”, “Is the end of capitalism coming?” are rising from the realm of bourgeois writers. How do you like that! Did the Marx virus enter the system? Joking aside, the bourgeoisie is now looking for a hole to escape from the truth, but cannot find it! All it can do is pretending to admit the facts when it is inescapable, and on the other hand it is sneakily trying to distort those facts.

Contrary to the atmosphere the bourgeoisie has created during the honeymoon period that the system seemed completely safe, the crisis has now brought the facts to the surface. The current conditions reveal that Old Marx still puts fear to the heart of the bourgeoisie many years after his death. There is nothing strange about this, since current events confirm what Marx said once. Famous bourgeois ideologists who have been exalting capitalism and the free market economy advertising it to be the eternal order in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, are now sharing similar analyzes and language with anti-capitalists. Of course, this is not because a crisis-stone fell on their heads and thus they became sane.

In the final analysis, it would be wise to seek class malevolence and calculations behind those expressions which, at first glance, seem to increase the popularity of Marxism. It is imperative to keep vigilant in the face of such attempts of diluting Marxism, which is also nurtured by the frivolous stance of academic circles, who are far from revolutionary responsibility. Bourgeois ideologists are, in fact, worried that this dark period of capitalist system will grow and strengthen the anti-system front. In order to prevent the revolutionary struggle from becoming stronger with the weapon of Marxism, bourgeois forces attempted to carry out a “preemptive war” in the ideological field: They are planning to reduce the appeal of Marxism by diluting it, in advance, before the proletarian elements arm with Marxism and commence a truly threatening revolutionary war against capitalism.

Nowadays, the bourgeoisie is distorting the meaning of socialism by equalizing it with statism, just as it did in the past. To the extent that these kinds of falsifications reach the goal, significant shifts and distortions occur in the consciousness of the masses. For example, in the USA, in response to the nationalization of some of huge bankrupt companies, masses rebelled against diverting public funds to the monopolies on the pretext of crisis. It was odd that the angry masses were chanting the slogan “down with socialism”, in protest. However, what the masses were protesting, in fact, was statism that always favored monopolies. But because of the distortions created, they named and denounced this statism as “socialism”.

Again, another important example of falsification is portraying socialism as a coarse reform prescription that will cure capitalist crises. However, socialism is to end exploitation and inequality. Bourgeois economists seek to create confusion by labelling state interventions that they propose against the crisis of capitalism with ridiculous descriptions like “a pinch of capitalism, a pinch of socialism”, “mixed economy” or “part-time socialism”. However, statism, in its general meaning, has nothing to do with socialism, and the state interventions as a measure against crisis are clearly capitalist statism. To put it more precisely, those interventions of the capitalist state, i.e. statism, are downright efforts to protect big capital.

No matter how bourgeois ideology attacks on statism from time to time; in essence, capitalists want their state always to play a caring role in their economic lives, in one way or another. Depending on the concrete conditions of the industrial cycle being experienced, the form and degree of this call for help may vary; but the capitalist state continues to intervene in the economic life, in some way. In times of great crises like the current one, the intervention of the capitalist state in the economy arises from a burning need to clear the barriers on the way to capital accumulation. Under the praise of “statism” rising from the capitalist front in such periods, lies the need for large funds of the state to be distributed in a fashion that further strengthens strong monopolies.

Today, the bourgeoisie is trying to take precautions against a substantial crisis of ruling on the top. This has been evident especially by the events in the USA, the hegemonic country of the system. The bourgeoisie is trying to calm the anger of the masses and release pressure by pretending to admit the weak sides the system, in order to take the upper hand before revolutionary forces enter the scene. Although the bourgeois writers involuntarily seem to give Marx credit, they are planning on how they can deceive and manipulate the masses. For this reason, they invent and circulate new arguments. This is the real situation and it should not be forgotten that the world working class does not need the fraudulent support of the bourgeoisie for acknowledging Marx to be right.

Whatever the bourgeoisie says or does, with all the serious troubles it has created, capitalist system revealed and will prove again and again that Marx and Marxism is right. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the bourgeoisie has been repeating via its ideological trumpeters that the working class has died and class struggle has ended. The facts that are revealed today have also exposed the lies of the bourgeoisie. And the events that will happen in the world in the coming periods will continue to reveal their lies.

As Marx pointed out in the preface of Capital, the main purpose of this colossal work was to disclose the laws of economic workings of the bourgeois society. Marx analyzed the internal laws of the capitalist mode of production with great accuracy and depth. Let alone enfeebling the brightness of his illuminating analyses, the long years that have passed have only empowered them. To give a striking example for the sake of shortness, it is enough to remind the ever-sharpening polarization of wealth and poverty in modern society. Bourgeois ideology develops manoeuvre upon manoeuvre with the aim of presenting capitalism as a bearable order for the working masses, but today all kinds of its lies such as “the welfare state spreading the wealth towards lower classes” have collapsed. So, the correctness and rightness of what Marx wrote decades ago, is obvious. As Marx said, the accumulation of wealth in one pole goes along with the accumulation of misery, precarious work, slavery, ignorance, barbarism and mental decline in the opposite pole. Capitalism, indeed, intensifies and generalizes poverty in the proletarian pole, while increasing and centralizing wealth in the bourgeois pole.

Another striking example is that, Marx’s vast scientific background, which he benefited while evaluating the fate of capitalism's crises, culminated in a unique prediction. Every time capitalism takes a relatively comfortable breath, the economists in defence of the capitalist order, try to refute Marx’s analyses, for example, by fabricating a new version of the tale “there will be no more crises”. However, facts are stubborn. The two periods of major crisis of capitalism in the past (1870s and 1930s), and the current long-term system crisis that has evolved and matured since the 1970s, strongly confirm Marx, who explained that capitalism can evade a crisis only at the cost of paving the way for more devastating ones.

The crisis that ripened from the 1870s to the 1890s was in a period in which capitalism had not yet depleted its reserves. Capitalism had overcome that crisis by transition to the imperialist stage. In contrast, the crisis in 1930s pertained to the imperialist period of capitalism, in which we live today. That crisis revealed that the restorative reserves of capitalism have decreased over time. Therefore, this last example shows the signs that, having no chance of upgrading to a new stage, imperialist capitalism has turned into a system that almost got stuck in itself. This state of stagnation, which started to mature especially in developed capitalist countries and turned into a historical impasse of capitalism, once has found its reflection in the political arena. Fascist dictatorships were established in European countries such as Germany and Italy. The wind of fascism at that time also swept the USA to some extent and continued to blow in many more capitalist countries.

Having spread all over the globe and having passed to the imperialist stage, capitalism’s emerging systemic stagnation leads increasingly to widespread and atrocious imperialist wars. In addition, “capitalist statism”, which is introduced to rescue capital out of the crisis, is also becoming more and more oppressive. In fact, the history of capitalism reveals that the development of this mode of production deepens and sharpens its innate contradictions. Capitalism constantly enhances the socialisation of labour at an incredible rate, thereby lays the material basis of socialism and makes its overthrow inevitable. The socialisation of production must ultimately end with transfer of the possession of means of production to society, i.e. with the expropriation of the property-owners. The social power that will carry out this historical action is the proletariat, which capitalism itself generated, expanded and still expanding.

The system crisis that broke out today is a well-established declaration that productive forces can no longer serve humanity under capitalism. Rotten capitalism has turned out to be completely inconsistent with the interests of the human race and nature. Writhing in deadly crises that occur more frequently and last longer, capitalism has no historical future. Capitalism is ultimately destined to death. Efforts of partial reforms and the delusory promises of “improvement” will not be able to spare capitalism of its fate. Socialism is the future of humanity.

Only by a workers’ revolution can humanity attain this bright future, a society with no classes and exploitation. Today, the centralization of the means of production and socialization of labour are no longer compatible with the capitalist crust, which Marx predicted decades ago. When the proletarian struggle eventually rises, this crust will fall to pieces and bells will toll for capitalist private property. Those who expropriate the poor people and live on sucking their labour will be expropriated!

Do not pay the bill of capitalism!

As written in Capital, the only single purpose of capital during its lifespan is creating surplus-value. And a capitalist is simply the personification of capital. His/her soul is the soul of capital. As capitalists, under command of capital, whip workers to gain more surplus-value, both the capitalists’ wealth increases and new overproduction crises are fermented. Thus, the crises of capitalism confirm Marx that the biggest obstacle to capital accumulation is capital itself. Based on the exploitation of human by human, and characterized by an unbridled greed for profit and an insatiable passion for money, capitalism showed that it is the greatest “enemy” of itself, endangering its own future. For this reason, it is futile for the rulers of capitalism to search for “terrorist” foci, who supposedly try to lay dynamite on the base of their order.

Capitalism is not based on meeting the social needs of humanity in a planned manner, and therefore is literally an anarchic mode of production. And now it creates a historical chaos in the world. The great crisis of capitalism has exposed the drawbacks of the system, has spilled its inherent garbage in such a way that even the bourgeois can hardly deny. The expanse, depth and severity of the crisis on a global scale are evident. There is no need for a long explanation. In the hegemonic country of the system itself, there are incessant news of bankruptcy of companies and banking system is shaken by collapses. Unemployment has already escalated to a dreadful magnitude.

Capitalist states are panicked in the face of future problems that will stem from the crisis. Their greatest fear is the long-term stagnation the crisis will bring on. For this reason, in order to minimize the social shocks caused by huge collapses, the capitalist states are implementing some bail out measures on the one hand, and they consider increasing state expenditures against the danger of recession, on the other hand. We cannot tell fortune over the details of what will happen in the coming period, but there is no need to be a fortune teller to say that this crisis period cannot be overcome by ordinary measures.

It is obvious that great crises will cause great problems and turmoil in economic and social life. However, capitalism can ultimately overcome even its greatest economic crises one way or another. Unless the working class eradicates the dilemma of crisis with the revolutionary sword blown on the capitalist system, the capitalists will find a way to get rid of the current crisis, by preparing even more devastating future crises, disregarding whatever it will cost to society. If we omit political arena and the course of the class struggle, for a moment, and take into consideration only the pure economic laws, even though capitalism causes great imbalances, it also bears possibilities of re-balancing the economy. As the result of the crisis, some “die” and some “survive”, and capitalism goes on with the “survivors”. In other words, the weaker are eliminated from the market, and capital is concentrated and centralized in the claws of the stronger.

However, the likelihood of this “corrective” mechanism to function in capitalist crises is not merely determined by economic factors. In fact, everything is subject to the course of the class struggle. Since the crisis puts on the agenda of society the question of which class will carry the burden. Being able to put the burden on the back of the opposite class requires a successful political struggle. Without strengthening itself by equipping revolutionary consciousness and organization, the working class cannot finally avoid getting it in the neck. This is how the bourgeoisie has been so far able to put the burden of the crisis on the backs of the working masses.

What capitalism has done so far is the guarantee of what it will do in the future. Throughout the history, capitalism has overcome its gravest crises by ruining the lives of the poor and pushing them to hunger, unemployment and death: So, the outlines of what this order is liable to commit in the upcoming period is already clear. The bourgeoisie will seek to further escalate its attacks, on a world scale, against the workers’ and toilers’ rights, which have already been intense enough for a long time. As the severity of the capitalist crisis squeezes bourgeois governments into corner, in all countries, political tensions will intensify and political crises will arise. The imperialist powers will try to get rid of the burden of their own crisis by increasing militarism even more, and turn the world into a bloodbath. It should not be forgotten that the major factor that fuelled the imperialist world wars of re-division is the great crises of the capitalist system.

Having taken its bitter share from past crises and been unable to reconcile its conflicts between bourgeois power blocs, a country like Turkey will, sooner or later, grievously suffer from the crisis. As the waves of the crisis will hit the coasts of Turkey, the ruling party AKP, who has long been boasting in vain, saying “the crisis will not touch us”, will eventually lose its credibility and strength. Financial capital will demand from all bourgeois governments, say USA or Turkey, to act as an economic regulator completely in the interests of big capital.

The working masses would not let themselves be dragged into a state of passive audiences in the face of unemployment, hunger and poverty created by capitalism, which has long deserved to be overthrown. The working class has to organize and struggle against the forces of order that try to put the burden of the capitalist crises on the back of the working masses. Let us not allow the economic and political burden of the crisis to crush the poor -old, young, baby, woman or man- either in the form of fascism or in the form of death by the bombs of imperialist wars!

link: Elif Çağlı, A Spectre Is Haunting the World, 29 November 2008, https://enternasyonalizm.org/node/557

published on 28 September 2020